Worried over water capacity, Stewiacke considers halting development
Town officials were in Calgary during a major water main break
A development boom in Stewiacke, N.S., could be put on hold for upwards of a year as council seeks assurances the town’s water system can handle a fast-growing population.
Officials with the town in Colchester County attended a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities a little over a week ago in Calgary, which was in the middle of a catastrophic water main break that cut the city off from 60 per cent of its treated water supply.
Concerned over the water capacity in their own municipality, Stewiacke council voted last week to seek legal advice about the possibility of pausing development in the town for six to 12 months. The town solicitor is expected to attend a council meeting on June 27.
“Are we at capacity? Are we under? Are we over? Heaven forbid,” Mayor George Lloy said during the June 13 meeting of the committee of the whole.
Old systems can’t keep up
Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, said municipalities across the country are struggling to keep up with aging infrastructure and the need to put new pipes in the ground. …[Continue Reading]